Subject: Bristol-Myers Will Test AIDS Vaccine on People
Date: Published: 11/27/87 36 lines
Source:  WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Bristol-Myers Will Test
    AIDS Vaccine on People

    WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration announced
 that New York-based Bristol-Myers Co. can begin human testing
 of an experimental AIDS vaccine, marking the second approval
 of an AIDS vaccine for human testing.
    The testing by Bristol-Myers, a pharmaceutical concern,
 will be directed by Lawrence Corey, director of the virology
 division at the University of Washington School of Medicine
 in Seattle.  The vaccine will be given to 30 to 60 homosexual
 volunteers who don't have acquired immune deficiency
 syndrome.
    The experimental vaccine is made from the virus from which
 smallpox vaccine is manufactured.  Genes from the surface
 protein of the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which
 causes AIDS, are inserted into smallpox vaccine virus using
 biotechnology techniques.  A control group in the study will
 receive a smallpox vaccine.
    FDA Commissioner Frank Young called the experimental virus
 "a major step," but added, "Even the most optimistic experts
 predict that an AIDS vaccine will not be in general use until
 well into the 1990s."
    In August, the first approval for human testing of an AIDS
 vaccine was granted to closely held MicroGeneSys Inc. of West
 Haven, Conn.

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